Summer 2011 (B Term) CHID 250A
Title: Extending Life
5-credits (I&S)
SLN 10659
MTWTH
Although the concept of life has a relatively short history (Michel Foucault locates its emergence in the nineteenth century), it has arguably only become a more and not less disputed concept in the post-genomic age. What are its proper boundaries? What disciplines study it? Who studies it? The scientist, the artist, the philosopher? With the rise of synthetic biology, bioart, computational bio-architecture, and a host of other fields, is the study of life still the exclusive privilege of biologists? Has the “gene as code” metaphor changed the boundaries of life? Do those who design form-finding algorithms that “reproduce” and “evolve” offer something to our knowledge of life? Or might it be the philosopher and/or cultural theorist, who provides a framework for understanding the technologies of power that generate the proliferation of life, and thus has the best insight into the concept? Or is it, perhaps, a combination of all of these knowledges, where each discipline, or set of problematics and methodologies, contributes something to our understanding? Whatever the case may be, at least this much is clear: life is something that cannot be easily decided on. In this course, through discussions and readings that span a number of different disciplines (from philosophy and cultural theory to bioart and computer science), we will investigate what is left of the concept of life when so many disciplines either claim to have privileged access to it, or, at the very least, contribute to our knowledge of it.
